Chapter 2: Melodi Adenia

As Kuren began to think about Melodi, the pain in his chest began to grow. He still remembered the first time he had seen her.

She had been walking in the hallway with a couple of girls accompanying her. Kuren was instantly captivated by Melodi’s beauty. Her gentle smile shook his heart and her pleasant laugh sounded like music to his ears. It was love at first sight for him.

But there was no way she would acknowledge him. He was a nobody. His uncle and aunt had always been poor. His father left him nothing. On the other hand, Melodi was part of the prestigious Adenia family. So, Kuren gave up his little crush on Melodi.

But one day, after class, Kuren forgot his books in the classroom. He walked back and entered the empty room. There was nobody in the room.

He walked up to his desk and looked for his books. Then he heard footsteps behind him. Before he could turn to look to see who it was, he suddenly saw darkness.

As he was falling to the ground, he saw a fuzzy image of a girl holding a book in her hand.

He woke up tied in a chair. As he looked around, a girl sat on top of the desk in front of him. His eyes widened and he tried to speak. No words came out. There was a piece of cloth stuffed in his mouth. He tried to move, but he was tied too tightly.

He slowly looked up at the girl. She smiled.

“Heh, I guess it’s just you and me. Nice to meet you. I’m Melodi. But I guess you know that. After all, you seem to enjoy staring at me?” The girl suddenly spoke. Kuren’s face reddened as the girl called him out. Then he blushed even more when he realized he was alone with a girl.

“Hehe, how cute. You’re making me feel nervous now.” Melodi got up and slowly walked towards Kuren. His heart began to pound as he thought about what was going to happen next. It was almost as if it was a dream. The beauty of the entire school, Melodi Adenia, was alone with him right now.

Melodi stopped right in front of Kuren and lowered himself onto his lap. At this point, Melodi was straddling Kuren. Kuren was a teenage male with a beautiful girl on top of him; it was safe to say he was a little excited.

Melodi giggled and slowly unbuttoned her shirt. She reached in and slowly pulled out…

…a knife.

Kuren’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening. He started to struggle but there wasn’t anything he could do.

Melodi raised the knife and slashed down, her smile widening even more. She ripped open Kuren’s shirt. Beads of blood appeared on Kuren’s chest where the knife had touched. Melodi slowly poked Kuren’s chest right where his heart was with the knife.

Kuren watched in horror as Melodi giggled uncontrollably.

“Hehehe, I can’t wait…to make you mine...you are going to all mine…so just let me mark you…and make you MINE.”

Kuren’s screams were muffled by the cloth in his mouth. Tears came out of his eyes from the pain. Melodi’s breaths became quicker and hotter as she slowly carved Kuren’s skin.

M. A.

She had carved her initials into his skin. She had marked Kuren as hers. The blood poured from his wound. Dizzy from the blood loss, Kuren fainted.

The last image he saw was the giggling girl holding a knife in his lap.

* * *

He awoke. He was still in the classroom. He looked down. His shirt was still ripped open, but there were bandages wrapped around his chest. He had been untied from the chair and the cloth in his mouth was gone. He got up from the chair and almost instantly fell down.

The pain in his chest was unbearable. Whenever he tried to rise, he would get dizzy and fall. He looked outside the window and saw that it was completely dark outside.

Kuren groaned and slowly crawled towards the door.

* * *

Melodi was a flower to the entire school. She dazzled everyone with her beauty. But only Kuren saw what was underneath that façade. Every time he thought of the girl, his chest began to heart. The scar throbbed almost as if it was reminding him.

To Kuren, she is not a flower. No, she is much more.

She is poison. She is evil. She is sadistic. She is beautiful. She is deadly.

And he is hers.

* * *

Kuren got up from his desk. The entire class was moving towards the exit.

He sighed. Now he had to spar with Flane. He knew there was no way he was going to beat him. Flane was superior to him in almost everything.

Do your best all right? Melodi’s words echoed in his mind. He grimaced. He knew that even if he was going to lose, he still had to put on a show. After all, to Melodi, he is naught but entertainment. He understood that the only reason she chose to talk to him was to amuse herself.

And this fight was just another attraction.

As he walked towards the door, Professor Monaco stopped him.

“Mr. Sain. Your grades in this class are…less than satisfactory to say the least. You used to be an outstanding student. But it’s obvious that you’ve been neglecting your studies. You seem to be sparring all the time now. Honestly, your physical ability is quite lacking. There’s not much hope for you in becoming a swordsman. Your magical talent isn’t much better… At this point, the only hope for you is to focus on one area. I suggest focusing on combat theory. Perhaps you may become a tactician. Otherwise, you may just fail this class. I don’t want to have a failed student staining my record. And I’m sure that you don’t want to waste your family’s money. Just show some improvement or you will not be in my class much longer.” Monaco stated sternly. Kuren nodded gloomily.

There wasn’t much he could do though. There was no way he could improve his swordsmanship when Flane and his friends went out of their way to treat him like a training dummy.

So why wasn’t studying an option? Well, the truth is, Kuren is quite smart. He was doing quite well in the beginning of the class. Of course, this was before Flane was acquainted with Kuren.

Flane’s constant challenges and spars had drained Kuren of time and energy. He rarely had the opportunity to study. For Flane, beating Kuren up was just practice. Flane could actually use the battles to train his endurance and practice new spells and sword techniques.

But why did Flane Adenium despise Kuren so much? A simple reason really. Because of Melodi Adenia.